When I tell people that I want to be a teacher, I am mostly met with a quizzical look or asked: ”Why would you want to do that job?”

Sometimes, in the worst cases, they exclaim “Don’t do it!” and bombard me with a huge list of all the negative aspects of being a teacher.

Yet, despite all the bad press that teaching gets as a profession, I remain undeterred.

In early September 2017, I will step into the classroom, no longer as a student but for the first time as a secondary school teacher.

There are many reasons why I am determined to teach: every day in teaching is different, you are able to make a difference to young people during the most crucial time of their lives and that rewarding feeling you get when you realise that you have helped even just one student to learn something.

Problems of perception

Of course, I still have many worries about being a teacher, which I think I share with the majority of graduates: the excessive paperwork, the endless hours and weekends spent planning and the pressure of targets and observations to name a few.

In fact, these real concerns are some of the main reasons why I think many excellent candidates are put off becoming teachers.

But there is a problem with the perception of teaching, too.

I wish teaching had the higher status in society that it really deserves. Teachers are the force that shapes and guides future generations. Teaching should be one of the most respected professions out there, but it is not.

If it were, it would not struggle to attract graduates, despite the problems mentioned above.

Why is it that a profession like the financial services is perceived so positively by graduates? On the surface, yes, it can offer lucrative salaries. But what about the long hours spent in an office, with eyes straining at computer screens?

The banking profession does not talk about that in isolation. They accentuate the positives, too.

Stand up for teaching

It is important that the teaching profession does the same. We need to acknowledge the good in being a teacher, as well as the bad. Tell people why you love your job as well as highlighting the problems. Tell them it is a job worth fighting for, worth dedicating yourself to, worth sticking at - and then let them know how your ability to be the best teacher you can be is curtailed by external factors. Let’s change negative perceptions of teaching into an important focus on the external factors that impact on it.  

That is why I have decided to have a different approach in the future when met with the common reaction to my career choice. I will explain why being a teacher is a great choice. Because I want teaching to have the respect it deserves. And I want people in my position in the future to be inspired to become teachers.

Laura McDonnell will begin the Teach First programme in September

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